CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating after winning support for their fight to get speeds reduced on the busy road between Alfold and Loxwood on the Surrey/West Sussex border.

The county council has now followed its neighbouring authority and agreed a cut from 60mph to 40mph - but only on a trial basis.

People living at Alfold Bars have been trying for years to have the limit cut. The latest campaign was launched earlier this year following a dramatic increase in the volume of traffic using the road, the B2133.

Some members of Surrey County Council’s Waverley Local Committee were unwilling to back the trial speed reduction, partly because the meeting on Friday, December 17 was given no details of accidents on the road.

However, there have been four recorded injury accidents in the past three years, one of which resulted in a serious injury. Police records showed speed was a contributory factor in two of the four accidents.

Hundreds of people in Alfold and Loxwood signed registers of support for the speed limit cut.

West Sussex County Council agreed to introduce a 40mph limit on a trial basis for six months on its stretch of the road, but despite this Surrey still had to decide whether or not to follow suit on its shorter section.

Highways department officials and police both said any cut should only be to 50mph and that for the trial to be a success it would need to result in average speeds of below 42mph being achieved.

Highlighting what would happen if Surrey did nothing, area highways manager John Hilder told the committee: “If the Surrey section remains signed at 60mph there is every chance that the speed of northbound traffic approaching Alfold village will increase, since drivers leaving the experimental 40mph limit are likely to accelerate.

“Conversely, the likelihood of the success of the experimental 40mph limit within West Sussex would be reduced in the northbound direction,” he said.

The experimental speed limit will have to be advertised at a cost of £1,500, which had some councillors from the other side of Waverley complaining.

However, county council leader and the local representative, Councillor Andrew Povey, offered to pay for this from his own spending allocation as he spoke in support of the campaign.

“If you try and walk this piece of road, I have to say it’s incredibly dangerous.

“Alfold Parish Council and the local PCSO [police community support officer] are in support of this, as are the residents.

“The speed may not be 42mph, but it will be a lot lower than it is now and will do something to improve safety on that road,” said Dr Povey, urging the committee to “think very carefully in the age of localism, where communities are going to be given more of a say, that we need to listen to the local people”.

The committee voted 9-3 in favour of the trial, which West Sussex plans to implement in February.

“It’s a forward move,” said one of the campaigners, Barry Steel, adding: “If we as villagers need to put our hands in our pockets I am sure we will – we are hoping this will become a permanent reduction.”

The campaigners now want to meet highways officers from Surrey and Sussex to discuss further ways of slowing the traffic.